P.K. Ojong -- A simple life full of achievement

P.K. Ojong -- A simple life full of achievement

Lie Hua, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hidup Sederhana Berpikir Mulia; P.K. OJONG - Satu Dari Dua Pendiri Kompas Gramedia (Live Simple, Think Noble - P.K. OJONG - One of Two Founders of Kompas Gramedia); By Helen Ishwara; Published by Kompas, Jakarta, September 2001, xii + 340 pages

Man dies but his deeds will live on in the memory of the living. That is why a biography is interesting as we can learn from someone's past act, good or bad.

This biography of PK Ojong (1920 - 1980) is also intriguing because it provides insight into how an Indonesian of Chinese descent made himself accepted in the entire Indonesian community and developed into a respected journalist and mass-media entrepreneur.

Born Auwyong Peng Koen in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, Ojong got formal training as a teacher in Jakarta before he continued his law studies at the University of Indonesia, which he left with a degree in 1951.

Although he came from quite a well-off family, Ojong had from early in his life been raised in frugality. His father would tell him and his siblings to leave no grain of rice on their plate. Frugality, for him, was one of his life principles until his death. In his adult years, he would, for example, wear a belt for 13 years, a year longer than his father's record.

One of his children recalled that even a small amount of change had to be returned. It was Ojong's belief that everything had to be calculated precisely. This, of course, does not necessarily mean that he was stingy. He would donate large amounts of money to the needy, but would resent donating even a cent for wedding or Christmas parties. If you don't have the money, you can just have simple parties, he seemed to believe. What counts is the meaning of the event, not their festivities.

Ojong was also known as a man of principle. He would apply his principles to everyone in his community -- his home or his office, for example. Some people considered him too rigid but he was proud of adhering to a principle he considered right.

He, for example, wanted nobody to wear sandals at the office without a reason. One of his employees was stubborn so he was told to put a bandage round the big toe so that there was a good reason for him to wear sandals. This small anecdotal happening shows that Ojong was principled but also considerate.

One thing worth remembering about him was his clear separation of office and family or relation affairs. He would never allow any blood or friendship relations to affect his office/business affairs. Hence his belief that his business undertakings would survive because it would not depend on him personally or his family or relatives, but on true professionals.

Ojong learned the journalistic trade when in 1946 he joined Star Weekly, a magazine intended for non-Chinese-speaking Chinese Indonesians. He began as a contributor and ended up as its managing editor. During his stint here, he showed his knack as an excellent editor as he knew who he had to contact to write articles for the weekly. He also showed his ability to present something for lay readers. He would prepare some questions that a lay reader might ask about an article or would rewrite an article so that it would be easy enough for a lay reader.

The book gives a lengthy and detailed account of how Ojong later published a magazine modeled after Reader's Digest and then Kompas daily. There are interesting stories about the early years of these publications, an account of his great struggle to ensure the two publications survival and to promote their development into tow highly, if not the most, respected media publications in the country. Tellingly, in this period, he practiced the principles that he had adopted since his younger years: frugality, punctuality, discipline.

As an Indonesian of Chinese descent, Ojong favored natural assimilation of Chinese-Indonesians with indigenous Indonesians, as opposed to the idea of integration advocated by the left-wing Indonesians of Chinese origin.

In short, the book gives a full picture of Ojong as a human being with his pluses and minuses. In his own rigid way, lacking in humor, as some of his friends would put it, Ojong lived his seemingly monolithic life colorfully. He did not confine himself to just being the head of a family but also became the head of his own community within the bigger scope of the entire Indonesian community.